The present invention relates to lighting displays and more particularly to an improved electro-optical system and associated method for communicating numerical messages using a coded sequence of flashing lights.
In the field of visual display systems, lighting arrangements have traditionally been used to present a variety of alphanumeric messages to an observer. Typically by means of the controlled energization of selected lights in a matrix, such arrangements have effectively communicated the message of interest by spelling out the individual alphanumeric components of the message for viewing over a period of time. In some situations, however, it has been more appropriate to employ a flashing light or series of flashing lights, rather than steady energization levels, to convey a message more brief but immediate, such as a warning or alert to an observer as to the presence of a particular hazard. While such flashing lights, switched "on" and "off" at a periodic rate or at random, have long been effectively used as a warning signal, no system of such flashing lights has heretofore been developed that can communicate a message of numerical information to an observer in all directions surrounding the flashing light system.